aiowps_global_meta preventing database backups / dump
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if filescan is activated, the list of all found files is squeezed into one serialized string of several megabytes (aiowps_global_meta.meta_value4).
this may work without problems if you have a very, very small site, but if you have a bunch of plugins and one or more complex theme(s) you will end up with a single row containing more data then all the rest of your database, leading to a situation where your are not able to dump/backup your database anymore because you will hit: Got packet bigger than ‘max_allowed_packet’. failing database backups is a serious problem. you may truncate the table or delete the row but after the next scan you will be in trouble again. you could also raise max_allowed_packet but i doubt that is reasonable.
it is getting even worse on a multisite installation, i witnessed a situation where the problem got duplicated to each and every site within the multisite installation, the same data everywhere. this single row tremendously bloats the database. (an almost 2GB database was down to a few hundred MB after truncating and optimizing all the aiowps_global_meta tables)
i understand, that this may only happen if you export/import the settings from your main site, but if you have a couple of sites this is what you do: setting up your main site and copy over all the setting to your subsites. i love that feature, it safes you so much time.sadly, the only real solution is to switch off filescan.
AIOWPS is an awesome collection of tools, enhancing wordpress security in many aspects, but the filescan as it is now, feels like the opposite because it is leading to failing database backups, and using an absurd amount of databasememory/RAM.
IMHO AIOWPS should put out a warning regarding this problem, or at least ensure that the scan will never run on subsites, even with imported settings, as it makes no sense at all scanning the same files again and again etc.
i know this issue has already been reported years ago, and obviously there is no fix for it until now, so maybe it might simply be better to remove that feature completely? chances are too high you will run into troubles with this feature enabled, it may work today but its just a matter of time, sooner or later you will reach max_allowed_packet. if someone wants a filescan, tools like “tripwire” may do a better job without risking database troubles.
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Hi, thank you for your extensive review and report regarding this feature Enable Automated File Change Detection Scan:.
but the filescan as it is now, feels like the opposite because it is leading to failing database backups, and using an absurd amount of databasememory/RAM.
I understand what you mean however no one has reported this as far as I know.
i know this issue has already been reported years ago, and obviously there is no fix for it until now, so maybe it might simply be better to remove that feature completely?
Can you share a link to the support thread that reported this issue. I am curious to know more about this.
Thank you
Hi,
is there a notification when the database backup fails?
No. There is an e-mail sent to the admin when changes are detected when you add an e-mail in the following field Send Email When Change Detected:.
if filescan is activated, the list of all found files is squeezed into one serialized string of several megabytes (aiowps_global_meta.meta_value4).
The plugin has a code which will periodically check the tables created by aiowps and it will cleanup any table which has more than 5000 rows, ie, the code will delete the oldest rows and keep the newest 5000. The “5000” rows is set as a default in the code but I have also added filters for this to allow you to be able to set your own value.
The filters can be found in the wp-security-backup.php file in the function called aiowps_scheduled_db_cleanup_handler.
The cleanup process is triggered once daily using the inbuilt WordPress “wp_schedule_event”. One way to trigger the cleanup process immediately is to deactivate and activate the aiowps plugin which should kick off the scheduled event.
Let me know if the above helps you.
Kind regards
The plugin has a code which will periodically check the tables created by aiowps and it will cleanup any table which has more than 5000 rows,…
5000 rows would be no problem, the problem is: all the file information (thousands-of files!) is stored in one single row. and this single row is getting so big, that database backups start silently failing.
i do not see how mentioned cleanup process could help in this case.
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